Middle-class professionals commute from their homes in Tel Aviv to jobs elsewhere without contributing to the cultural landscape in outlying regions.

This week’s conference at Ben-Gurion University, organized by the Negev Center
for Regional Development to honor the retirement of its founder, geographer and
regional planner Prof.

Yehudah Gradus, examines the changing nature of
the relations between the Center of the country and the periphery. Ever since
the establishment of the state, successive governments have paid lip service to
the need to develop the peripheral regions – the Galilee and the Negev – through
a range of policies aimed at creating cheap housing, lower taxes, employment
opportunities and improved transportation and access links to the
Center.

But 60 years on and the periphery remains relatively undeveloped
compared to the continued growth and expansion of the metropolitan center of
Gush Dan, stretching from Hadera in the north to Gedera in the south, with Tel
Aviv at its core. The population has voted with its feet and opted to live in
densely populated, high-rise residential complexes in Tel Aviv and the
neighboring cities, rather than in the less crowded and cheaper apartment prices
of the south and the north.

Government intervention in providing cheap
land and tax concessions has, at best, stemmed the flow, but has never really
succeeded in putting the country’s peripheral regions on equal footing with the
metropolitan Center. This is all the more surprising given that, with the
exception of the far south of the Negev, the description of the Negev and the
Galilee as a periphery is a bit of an oxymoron, since almost no region in Israel
today is more than two hours’ travel from Tel Aviv and Gush Dan.

The
Trans-Israel Highway (Route 6) and the continued improvement of the rail system
has made it even easier and quicker for people to travel from their homes in the
outlying regions into Tel Aviv.

This has enabled people to commute daily
into Tel Aviv to seek those employment opportunities that are lacking in their
own locale; yet in many cases, it has facilitated a reverse commuter flow,
whereby many middle-class professionals – such as hospital doctors, university
professors and government officials – are able to commute from their homes in
the Center to their jobs in Beersheba, Nazareth or Safed. These people also
enjoy the cultural and social benefits of living in the center of the country
without contributing to the creation of a viable cultural community in the
outlying regions.

It has left behind the weaker populations, many of them
unemployed, unable to pay local taxes for the upkeep of their cities and
development towns, resulting in a vicious cycle of lower standards of living and
poorer urban infrastructures that, in turn, prove unattractive to would-be
newcomers who may initially have been prepared to consider moving and setting up
homes in these areas.

Even in an era of reduced travel time and access,
it remains difficult to persuade young professionals to remain in the south when
they complete their studies at Ben-Gurion University, Sappir College and other
institutes of higher education in the region.

The country’s peripheral
regions do not enjoy a political lobby of their own. The lack of constituencies
within the political and electoral system means that there is no real lobby on
behalf of the Negev or the Galilee in the Knesset. The appointment of a
government minister, currently Silvan Shalom, to represent these regions has had
no impact whatsoever.

It was just another of those ministries created,
along with numerous ministries-without-portfolios, to satisfy the many coalition
partners and to provide “jobs for the boys” so the government would have a
majority.

And despite the platitudes and slogans that are often heard
concerning the need for population dispersal away from the Center, and the need
to settle the entire country, the overall situation has gotten worse over the
past two decades. David Ben-Gurion’s dream that the country’s population would
follow his own personal example – he went to live in the desert kibbutz of Sde
Boker and is buried there along with his wife Paula – has never
materialized.

Nor has the development of the West Bank settlement network
during the past 30 years contributed to the situation. The pouring of government
resources into middle-class suburban communities that, to all effect, are
located within the Tel Aviv commuter belt, have created unfair competition for
both the Negev and the Galilee. If a young family can receive cheap land, tax
concessions and other government benefits by building their homes just 20
minutes away from the country’s major employment centers why, indeed, should
they consider moving further afield? For those who have no political qualms
about living beyond the Green Line, this has become the preferred option, even
when faced with an unclear political future. At best, there will be no political
resolution of the conflict and they will continue to enjoy their high quality of
life in prime locations between Tel Aviv and Jerusalem; at worst, there will be
a political solution necessitating settlement evacuation, in which case they
will receive high levels of compensation that will enable them to relocate
within the central, metropolitan area of the country.

The problem with
the development of peripheral regions is not as much about housing as it is
about long-term, high quality employment opportunities.

The construction
of houses and apartment blocks requires a one-off investment that can often be
recouped through the sale of the properties. But the long-term creation of
employment is far more difficult, especially for highly qualified and educated
people. Hi-tech and sophisticated factories prefer to set up in close proximity
to their main competitors in the Center, even if it means they will not benefit
from government investment and cheaper establishment costs. In many cases,
factories have been set up with government assistance in peripheral regions, but
as soon as the initial period of repayment has passed – often five to 10 years –
the factories close and relocate elsewhere, arguing that they are no longer
competitive with the factories in the Center of the country.

But we also
have to be careful how we portray the periphery. By continually crying out that
the Negev and the Galilee are discriminated against, we strengthen the image of
the periphery as an unattractive place to live and work. We don’t do enough to
show the many positive attributes of regions with cheaper land prices, open
spaces and other obvious benefits for young, qualified couples seeking to create
new communities and build a future for their children. It is as much about
quality of life and economic opportunities as it is about the ideological
messages that the Ben-Gurion generation used, with limited success – and without
which it is unlikely that there would even be a Ben-Gurion University
today.

For that to happen, the regions require visionary and capable
leaders, especially in local and municipal politics, who are able to inject
enthusiasm and originality into local development projects, rather than local
politicians who spend their time complaining about the poor status of their
towns and settlements.

There is still much hope for the periphery,
especially as the Center becomes even more congested and polluted. But to move
forward in the right direction, we need a new generation of young, politically
astute leaders who are able to translate the challenges facing both the Negev
and the Galilee into the realities of the 21st century, rather than regurgitate
the outdated messages of the 1950s and ’60s.

The writer is dean of the
Faculty of Humanities and Social Sciences at Ben-Gurion University. The views
expressed are his alone.